PANAMA

I had been married for eight years, and I wanted to get away from it all. Everything had completely fallen apart. I was newly single and freshly divorced, and it would be the first time I wouldn't be with my kids for Christmas.

I didn't have two weeks, but I had ten days, and that's all I needed.

The number ten biblically represents testing. I was testing myself and leaning in hard on God.

I no longer had a commitment to fulfill, just a massive wound to heal. I wanted to slip quietly out the back door.

Instead, I prayed.

Which turned into an exciting adventure in Panama.

I ventured off alone and officially checked out from social media for a few days to recalibrate. Before I left on this adventure, I watched The Holiday, one of my favorite Christmas movies, and thought, "I can do this." Except this is more of an Eat, Pray, Love situation.

I came with no schedule or itinerary, primarily a book, a bikini, a backpack, and a drone. I was going to a little fishing village away from the city, where they mainly speak Spanish, and people from all over the world come to snorkel, free dive, or scuba dive.

I prayed about it for the entire month of November and decided to go for it.

I was nervous, actually very nervous.

But I had been told you must travel at least once alone to a new place outside of your comfort zone, so off I went.

It started when I booked a beginner's dive to Coiba and met a lovely family on the boat from Montana. The next day, they were going out on a private charter to spear dive and asked if I would like to come along. I quickly prayed about it and then immediately said yes. We walked down to the beach that morning, got in a panga boat, and took off to troll for fish. We caught several bonito off the coast and went into spear dive along the emerald water. We quietly got out of the boat, snorkeled, and watched from above to see the caves and rocks they were climbing into underneath the water. A couple of hours later, we had fresh red snapper and conch.

This led to us anchoring on an island with no one in sight. They cleaned the fish right there on the rocks and cut it up for ceviche. Now, I have been a vegetarian for over a decade, but I thought if there was ever an opportunity to try fish, this was it. It was incredible!

We had watermelon and coconuts found on the island. The whole experience was a ten out of ten day. It was the nicest people, with the best laugh all day long, and I will never forget what Pietro said to me as we were heading back in, "You come to Panama, and you become rich in happiness." That's it.

While I was there, I met people from all over the world. I did meditation and yoga and rode on two panga boats to different islands. I came home with the saying, "no necesito que sea facil, necesito que valga la pena."

I don't need it to be easy, I need it to be worth it. Every single part of this adventure was worth it.